Yes, cover bands. Bards of the church basement! Balladeers of the bride! And, occasionally, geniuses.

Such as:

Me First and the Gimme Gimmes and their Celine Dion punk rock

Nouvelle Vague’s sultry bossa nova takes on New Wave favorites

Tragedy: The only all-metal tribute to the Bee Gees

So read up: we have a Q&A with Fat Mike (of the aforementioned Me First and the Gimme Gimmes, with a new album out today — all diva songs!) explaining the dos and don’ts of cover bands, plus our picks for 13 other bands that outshine the originals, song links included.